Trace element fingerprinting of cockle (Cerastoderma edule) shells can reveal harvesting location in adjacent areas

摘要

Determining seafood geographic origin is critical for controlling its quality and safeguardingthe interest of consumers. Here, we use trace element fingerprinting (TEF) of bivalve shells todiscriminate the geographic origin of specimens. Barium (Ba), manganese (Mn), magnesium (Mg),strontium (Sr) and lead (Pb) were quantified in cockle shells (Cerastoderma edule) captured withtwo fishing methods (by hand and by hand-raking) and from five adjacent fishing locations withinan estuarine system (Ria de Aveiro, Portugal). Results suggest no differences in TEF of cockle shellscaptured by hand or by hand-raking, thus confirming that metal rakes do not act as a potentialsource of metal contamination that could somehow bias TEF results. In contrast, significantdifferences were recorded among locations for all trace elements analysed. A Canonical Analysisof Principal Coordinates (CAP) revealed that 92% of the samples could be successfully classifiedaccording to their fishing location using TEF. We show that TEF can be an accurate, fast and reliablemethod to determine the geographic origin of bivalves, even among locations separated lessthan 1 km apart within the same estuarine system. Nonetheless, follow up studies are needed todetermine if TEF can reliably discriminate between bivalves originating from different ecosystems.